The Trouble With Charlie: A Novel

by Merry Jones

Overview

Elle finds the body of her soon-to-be-ex husband, Charlie on her sofa, stabbed to death with her kitchen knife. Elle's close friends stand by her through the difficult funeral, but Elle alone must face the loss of the man she'd loved. Except that the loss is not total--Charlie is still around. Elle feels his presence, smells his after shave. Hears him accuse her of killing him. And even though she doesn't believe in ghosts, she argues with him, asserting her innocence. Oddly, Elle has a gap in her memory; she can't account for her activity during the time of his murder. As she tries to clear herself by finding out how Charlie died, she discovers that she had plenty of reason to kill him. Charlie had secrets. Infidelity. Unsavory business associates. Involvement with an international organization of sex abusers. The more she learns, the more danger she faces. As unscrupulous people begin to fear she'll expose them, Elle races against time to avoid arrest, fight off attackers, solve the murder, and make peace with Charlie's spirit.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608090754
Publisher:	Oceanview Publishing
Publication date:	01/26/2013
Series:	The Elle Harrison Series , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	716,867
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Merry Jones is the author of the Harper Jennings thrillers and the Zoe Hayes mysteries. She has also written humor and nonfiction. She's a graduate of Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania and lives outside of Philadelphia. The Trouble with Charlie is the first in the Elle Harrison series.

Editorial Reviews

Jones makes the most of her plot twists in this solid stand-alone featuring Philadelphia elementary schoolteacher Elle Brooks. Elle’s marriage to Charlie Harrison is at an end, their divorce waiting to be finalized. On returning home after a night out with her girlfriends, Elle is unsettled by indications that Charlie, despite having moved out, is in the townhouse with her, including what feels like a light kiss on theback of her neck and a long-stemmed rose lying on the kitchen floor. She grabs a knife to protect herself, only to find Charlie dead, stabbed in the back. As the obvious suspect, Elle finds that clearing her name is complicated by frequent, unexplainable gaps in her memory that have even Elle doubting her own innocence. Not much depth, but the brisk prose keeps the pages turning. Agent: Rebecca Strauss, McIntosh & Otis. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Merry Jones opens some dark doors in The Trouble with Charlie. It's devious, creepy, brilliant, and wicked fun. I absolutely loved it, cover to cover."

—Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Assassin's Code and Flesh & Bone

— Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Assassin's Code and Flesh & Bone

"Jones makes the most of her plot twists in this solid stand-alone featuring Philadelphia elementary schoolteacher Elle Brooks...brisk prose keeps the pages turning."
Publishers Weekly

"The characters, in The Trouble with Charlie, both living and dead are engaging and the dialog is crisp and fun to read. The running dialog in Elle's head is enough for me to recommend this book. The twist and turns of Elle's adventures gave me whiplash and I was caught up in the puzzle that was Charlie's death. This mystery thriller was a tantalizing adventure and I highly recommend it."
Literati Literature Lovers

"...great fun even though there's quite a high body count and obvious danger to our amnesiac heroine... The Trouble With Charlie is very entertaining and the structured revelations as odd pieces of memory return are elegantly handled. Overall, I conclude the book is well worth picking up as a mystery shading into a thriller when the mood takes it that way."
Thinking About Books

"The Trouble with Charlie is an absolute delight. Don't miss it. Fun reading."
BookLoons.com

From the Publisher